Building a PC for VFX / Compositing / Editing

v.e.r.b.a.l

Hi,

I've done a lot of research now and have chosen the following components for my build. Will be used mostly for VFX (especially compositing using After Effects CS6, Nuke, Houdini etc) along with editing using Premiere Pro CS6 and PhotoShop CS6.

Can you let me know if everything looks good here / will I run into any problems with the stuff I picked out? Planning to replace the stock fans on the H100 with the quieter Noctua ones and move the case fans from the top to the front.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Goes Like Hell 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with StreetFighter 4 PC Game £219.95
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £215.99
1 x Asus P9X79 PRO Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £203.98
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX750 High Performance 750W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-750AXUK) £129.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-04649) £114.98
1 x Antec P280 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black £109.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £92.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9) £91.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3) (CWCH100) £84.98
1 x Corsair Force GT 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CSSD-F60GBGT-BK) £71.99
1 x Akasa USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Memory Card Reader (Internal header) (AK-ICR-14) £20.99
1 x LG GH22NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
2 x Noctua NF-P12 Vortex-Control 120mm Quiet Case Fan - 3 Pin £17.99 (£35.98)
Total : £1,429.27 (includes shipping : £13.75).

Skylinehead

PSU is overkill.
Don't get a 570, look into a 7850/7950/even a 670 with that budget.
Get a bigger SSD with the savings.
No idea what that case is like, but Corsair Carbide 500r/Graphite 600T are probably better.
As for CPU/Mobo, is it really worth the outlay over an Ivy i7?

v.e.r.b.a.l

Skylinehead wrote: »

PSU is overkill.

I've been told repeatedly by lots of people that I should go with this PSU as it's the one component that is overlooked and can affect performance.

Skylinehead wrote: »

Don't get a 570, look into a 7850/7950/even a 670 with that budget.

I'm sticking with NVIDIA because of the compatibility with After Effects and Houdini etc. Can't really afford a 670 though

Skylinehead wrote: »

Get a bigger SSD with the savings.

I've decided to go with the Asus SSD caching option. For the cost of a huge SSD that could fit the entrie Adobe Creative Suite on it, I couldn't see the point in spending so much more for a slight improvement in loading times. This seems to be the best option for me.

Skylinehead wrote: »

No idea what that case is like, but Corsair Carbide 500r/Graphite 600T are probably better.

They're some great cases alright, but so long as the case performs well with cooling and noise-reduction, it's up to personal preference. The Antec P280 gets some great reviews and ticks all the boxes with what I'm looking for.

Skylinehead wrote: »

As for CPU/Mobo, is it really worth the outlay over an Ivy i7?

I decided to go with Socket LGA2011 over getting an IB CPU. I can have the option of 8 DIMM slots to eventually up to 64gb of RAM, plus down the line I can upgrade the CPU to the 6 core i7 or the 8 core IB when it comes out.

Cheers for all the helpful advice dude!

Any issues with compatibility I should look at? I'll have another hunt for GPUs, but I haven't really spotted anything in my budget that I could afford better than this...

Eboggles

Go for Ivy as opposed to SB-E. The 3770k beats the 3820 in everything.

I mean everything

OCUK aren't good value either. Below is a build that uses better components (7950 destroys GTX 570) and comes in at a much lower price point.

Item|Price
2 x 8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€71.38
Thermalright HR-02 Macho|€33.89
XFX PRO650W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€75.18
Intel Core i7-3770K Box, LGA1155|€312.24
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Black Pearl|€92.10
LiteOn iHAS124-19 schwarz SATA|€17.50
HIS HD 7950 GDDR5 3072MB DVI/HDMI/2xMiniDP|€333.02
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€85.44
Corsair Hydro Series H100 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1)|€89.63
2 x NOCTUA Lüfter NF-P12 PWM|€35.96
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€75.59
Seagate Barracuda 7200 2000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€102.46
Akasa AK-ICR-07 Interner 6-Port Card Reader mit USB 3.0, 8,89cm (3,5")|€13.12
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€125.45
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1481.95

The 650 watt PSU is in there for CF later on. If you want you can upgrade the 7950 to an aftermarket version (Twin Frozr, etc.) or bump it up to a 7970. OR if you need more space, you could get a 128gb SSD.

EDIT: After seeing the above point, the 3770k can reach 4.2-4.5 ghz fairly handily (not as easily as 2600k) and at that clock would be better than the IB-E equivalent, if the performance gains over sandy in 1155 are similar to socket 2011.

v.e.r.b.a.l

Eboggles wrote: »

Go for Ivy as opposed to SB-E. The 3770k beats the 3820 in everything.

I mean everything

OCUK aren't good value either. Below is a build that uses better components (7950 destroys GTX 570) and comes in at a much lower price point.

Item|Price
2 x 8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€71.38
Thermalright HR-02 Macho|€33.89
XFX PRO650W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€75.18
Intel Core i7-3770K Box, LGA1155|€312.24
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Black Pearl|€92.10
LiteOn iHAS124-19 schwarz SATA|€17.50
HIS HD 7950 GDDR5 3072MB DVI/HDMI/2xMiniDP|€333.02
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€85.44
Corsair Hydro Series H100 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1)|€89.63
2 x NOCTUA Lüfter NF-P12 PWM|€35.96
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€75.59
Seagate Barracuda 7200 2000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€102.46
Akasa AK-ICR-07 Interner 6-Port Card Reader mit USB 3.0, 8,89cm (3,5")|€13.12
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€125.45
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1481.95

The 650 watt PSU is in there for CF later on. If you want you can upgrade the 7950 to an aftermarket version (Twin Frozr, etc.) or bump it up to a 7970. OR if you need more space, you could get a 128gb SSD.

EDIT: After seeing the above point, the 3770k can reach 4.2-4.5 ghz fairly handily (not as easily as 2600k) and at that clock would be better than the IB-E equivalent, if the performance gains over sandy in 1155 are similar to socket 2011.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'd prefer the security of buying from OC rather than HWS (not looking for a big argument here, I've just heard some bad things )

I still want to go for the LGA 2011 socket for the above reasons (8 DIMMS of RAM and the option of upgrading to an 8 core CPU down the line). Sure the IB is slightly better than the SB-E, but there's no real future-proofing there and that's one of the biggest advantages of a self-build to me. Plus, before overclocking (which I don't plan on doing - initially anyways) there isn't much difference between the two CPUs really, is there?

Eboggles

Hardwareversand.de are the best company I've ever dealt with. I've done 5 builds with them over the last 6 months and they've all been perfect. I've used OCUK too, and I have to say they were great as well. But really, even if you go with SB-E (which is still great) you'll be saving €100's of euro. Just think about it.
Many people on this forum have used HWVS, and nearly all of them have been perfect. There have been a few niggles (as with all companies) but they've all been sorted out with their customer support.
I'm actually not a HWVS employee, I swear!

v.e.r.b.a.l

Eboggles wrote: »

Hardwareversand.de are the best company I've ever dealt with. I've done 5 builds with them over the last 6 months and they've all been perfect. I've used OCUK too, and I have to say they were great as well. But really, even if you go with SB-E (which is still great) you'll be saving €100's of euro. Just think about it.
Many people on this forum have used HWVS, and nearly all of them have been perfect. There have been a few niggles (as with all companies) but they've all been sorted out with their customer support.
I'm actually not a HWVS employee, I swear!

Ha ha. Cheers for that. I'll give it a bit of thought.

What do you think of my reasons for picking the 3820 over the 3770K? I've spent months researching all of this, but I've never actually built before so all advice welcome!

deconduo

v.e.r.b.a.l wrote: »

I've been told repeatedly by lots of people that I should go with this PSU as it's the one component that is overlooked and can affect performance.

The PSU is the component that most people get wrong, and usually for two reasons.

-They see a 'Hi Power 700W PSU' for €20 and think that its a great deal. It then explodes/catches fire/fails after 2 weeks of use.

-They hear horror stories of the above from other people and grab a 1KW €200 PSU for a single, mid-range graphics card.

A good 500W unit will run any single current gen graphics card without any problem. A good 650W unit will run most dual configs. The best value units at the moment would be the XFX Core Pro series or SuperFlower Amazons. You can of course splash out for an 80+ Gold, Modular PSU, but you will have wasted €100 that could have gone into other parts, and you won't have gotten anything more reliable really.

v.e.r.b.a.l

deconduo wrote: »

The PSU is the component that most people get wrong, and usually for two reasons.

-They see a 'Hi Power 700W PSU' for €20 and think that its a great deal. It then explodes/catches fire/fails after 2 weeks of use.

-They hear horror stories of the above from other people and grab a 1KW €200 PSU for a single, mid-range graphics card.

A good 500W unit will run any single current gen graphics card without any problem. A good 650W unit will run most dual configs. The best value units at the moment would be the XFX Core Pro series or SuperFlower Amazons. You can of course splash out for an 80+ Gold, Modular PSU, but you will have wasted €100 that could have gone into other parts, and you won't have gotten anything more reliable really.

Cheers. I think my problem is that I've never done a build before and because I'm spending so much money, I'd almost prefer the peace of mind of going with the Corsair that I've seen so many others use with no problems. I'm sure bronze 80 plus would do the job too, but I (only recently) decided to up it to the gold for peace of mind. :rolleyes: I'd go for modular for the cable-management and airflow advantages

v.e.r.b.a.l

Eboggles wrote: »

Hardwareversand.de are the best company I've ever dealt with.... if you go with SB-E (which is still great) you'll be saving €100's of euro. Just think about it.

I might be missing something here, but I can only see €2 in the difference between OC and HWS for the 3820???

Eboggles

v.e.r.b.a.l wrote: »

I might be missing something here, but I can only see €2 in the difference between OC and HWS for the 3820???

I meant you'll be saving build vs build as opposed to item vs item. OCUK do special deals quite often which can make them look like good value, but with crap exchange rates and poor shipping makes other retailers such as hardwareversand a better option.

v.e.r.b.a.l

Eboggles wrote: »

I meant you'll be saving build vs build as opposed to item vs item. OCUK do special deals quite often which can make them look like good value, but with crap exchange rates and poor shipping makes other retailers such as hardwareversand a better option.

Oh right! Sorry. Shipping on OC is just £12, which isn't too bad. I agree the "special offers" are a load of crap, but they seem to be the same price as almost everywhere else, so unless I find a significantly cheaper place, I'll prob stick with them.

So, any issues you can see with my spec? Has anyone had any direct experience with the H100? I know it can sound like a Jet taking off in your sitting room, so I'm gonna switch out the fans with the Noctua ones instead.

The P280 case has two 120mm fans pre-mounted on the top of the case, so I'm gonna remove them, mount the H100 with the Noctuas and use the case fans on the front of the case instead.

Eboggles

Yeah the spec itself is fine, I'd just change the case to something better, like the 600t, 650d, carbide 500r or HAF X.

v.e.r.b.a.l

Eboggles wrote: »

Yeah the spec itself is fine, I'd just change the case to something better, like the 600t, 650d, carbide 500r or HAF X.

Really?? Is there something in particular about the case that flags itself as bad? Gotten great reviews and I love the space inside and the silencing is supposed to be great while keeping good airflow.

It doesn't have a window but if it came to silence vs window, I'd go for silence!

Cheers

Eboggles

It's old and fairly outdated
The ones I mentioned above are great cases, and have amazing airflow, cable management opportunities and are nice and quiet.

frozenfrozen

Stick with the 570. it's far better than a 670 for compute performance, despite seeming to have less cuda cores.

Eboggles

frozenfrozen wrote: »

Stick with the 570. it's far better than a 670 for compute performance, despite seeming to have less cuda cores.

Who mentioned GTX 670?

v.e.r.b.a.l

Eboggles wrote: »

Who mentioned GTX 670?

I think it was Skylinehead who suggested it? Is the 570 the best I can do for that price? Like I say, I want to stick with NVIDIA for the integration with Adobe After Effects and Premiere

frozenfrozen

Skylinehead wrote: »

Don't get a 570, look into a 7850/7950/even a 670 with that budget.

Eboggles wrote: »

Who mentioned GTX 670?

.

Skylinehead

v.e.r.b.a.l wrote: »

I think it was Skylinehead who suggested it? Is the 570 the best I can do for that price? Like I say, I want to stick with NVIDIA for the integration with Adobe After Effects and Premiere

I'd imagine any advantages Nvidia has in terms of integration is easily outstripped by the power the 7950 has over the 570.

frozenfrozen

Skylinehead wrote: »

I'd imagine any advantages Nvidia has in terms of integration is easily outstripped by the power the 7950 has over the 570.

I thought ati cards didn't work with mercury playback engine?

v.e.r.b.a.l

Eboggles wrote: »

It's old and fairly outdated

The P280 came out November 2011. The HAF X came out May 2010. I'd say it's the HAF that's old and outdated!

I'm not a big fan of lots of mesh and bright LEDs on my case, but if there's a specific reason why I should go for one of the Corsairs (which I quite like, but not as much as the Antec) or the HAF X over the P280, I'd love to know.

My biggest concerns would be airflow and noise and from the reviews I hear the P280 has those covered! I know that the HAF X does too and the Corsairs at least have the airflow sorted, but I find it puzzling why you'd say the P280 is outdated??! If it's just down to personal preference then fair enough.

I agree that the Corsairs you mentioned and the HAF X are all great cases (and I've had each one -with the exception of the 600T- in my shopping basket over the last few months when deciding on a case), but I feel the P280 is the business for everything I'm looking for.

Eboggles

Sorry, I was thinking of the P100 series, I'm such a fool. Yeah go with that case then.

v.e.r.b.a.l

Oddly enough, I've put way too much thought into the case!! So I reckon I prob will go for the P280 in the end.

deletemonday

if money is no issue i will recommend an lga2011 over lga1155, due to the fact that adobe AE will benefit from the extra ram , the more ram the better in this case .so it will make sense if you buy 32 or even 64 gig of ram , but for 16gb of ram and i7 3820 , i think an overclocked i7 2600k ,by the way is easily overclocked to 4.5gh, sounds like a better investment ,and will match the i7 3820 perfomance , if you go lga 2011 go for an i7 3930k it is 6 core cpu ,the other 2 are 4 cores.

about the Graphics card , in paper the gtx670 looks way better for adobe than the gtx 570, the 570 comes with 400 cuda cores , the 670 comes with 1377 cuda cores for only a €100 more , and apparently it is quieter ?! the 570 is adobe certified , the 670 is not, i dont think this will have any difference performance wise !
buy a wifi card or usb adaptor it will be very useful and they are quiet cheap .

i will also recommend against using that case for airflow reasons .

please let us know about your final built and good luck.

frozenfrozen

deletemonday wrote: »

about the Graphics card , in paper the gtx670 looks way better for adobe than the gtx 570, the 570 comes with 400 cuda cores , the 670 comes with 1377 cuda cores for only a €100 more , and apparently it is quieter ?! the 570 is adobe certified , the 670 is not, i dont think this will have any difference performance wise !
buy a wifi card or usb adaptor it will be very useful and they are quiet cheap .

i will also recommend against using that case for airflow reasons .

please let us know about your final built and good luck.

570 is a lot better than 600 series as 600 series has been nerfed for compute tasks.